I recently got to observe a very cool lab, Disecting worms! First off the lesson began with a 10 minute introduction going over all the parts of the worm, and what they will be looking for in the day's lab. After recapping and bringing out students' prior knowledge, My CT did a demonstration of how to do the dissection. He made sure to go over the safety risks and procedure with his students. Watch what your doing with the knife its very sharp, and only one hand should be on your trays at a time to avoid slips. He used the DOC camera to show the class the procedure they will follow, and also had a sheet with these same instructions. Students worked in pairs at tables of 4, so we were able to go from group to group easily and direct students that were having trouble. My CT has very good relationships with his students they always seem to be confortable and he always is open to listen to what they have to say. I have also noticed that he is aware of which students are on what sports teams, or part of which clubs, and often asks them how it's going. They seem to appreciate that greatly because it shows that he cares more about the students.
Anyway, for the lab they were doing with the worms, I was able to work with the groups that were grossed out or clumsy for quite bit of the dissection. I noticed my CT would never go to the groups and DO any part of the dissection for the student no matter how much they butchered the worm but instead directed them to being more careful, and to pay more attention. I went around and used the same strategies.
For inquiry I actually led a lesson in my other placement in the middle school the period after my CT performed the same lab. This lab was simple, it had no risks so safety procedures weren't needed. The objectives were straight from the GSE Students will understand the characteristics of a living organism. They were given milk food coloring and detergent, and explain why or why not the mix of the 3 is a living thing. they have to hypothesize what will happen and conclude the results. I beleive in this kind of assignment because the students learn by exploration, instead of instruction and they really seemed to enjoy the reactions.

Classroom management is something both my CT's do well so I will talk about how they are similar and different, mostly because of the age differences.
For middle school my CT has the same type of routine every time I observe. it is always recap or go over a recent grade, followed by 25 minute group activity with a 10 minute final group talk. She establishes her rules every time if they are not doing their work or chitchatting then they will be separated. She speaks very calmly and I have never noticed her yell. She has one class who can get a bit rowdy and off topic. I can't tell if they are getting on her nerves because if they are she makes it very unnoticeable. With me and her walking around during classwork to each table really keeps all the students working to a good pace.
In the high school my CT I have seen mostly with seniors who are well behaved, but the class that I am going to take over for first is another story. It is a bit of a tossup which of his classes I get to see when I go in. When these students act up he continues tells them to stop and they usually do (even thought they may start up a few minutes later). When I asked what he does for them he told me that he tries to be as close to them as possible get them to like you so that they won't always be rude or out of line. In one of my previous journals I mentioned that he loves to constantly ask questions, put visuals like videos up frequently, and move about the room, keeping the students attention on him. I also mentioned his ability to go along with jokes to minimize the time they make take away from his class. I have had teachers that hear a silly joke from a student get mad and then it would ruin the classroom morale.
I picture myself being a teacher who can have a bit of fun in the class too because I used to joke around when I was in that position, and when a teacher laid down the hammer on me, I would stop joking but also stop listening. It has come to my attention that middle school students are much better with routine than randomizing lessons. I know when a student is seriously acting up it is best to have them take a walk, it used to help me so when it first occurs when I am teaching thats going to be my go to move, I can always try something new if the student responds poorly by not coming back or something like that.

When I go into my placements I go in at very different times, Monday morning for middle school, Friday afternoon for High School. The game of school seems to change a lot with the day and grade level. Middle school students that play the game are the ones that when are told to work on assignments in the back, they may either try to do no work and act as though they are when you walk by, or they may work at a table with students who do their work regularly and try stealing the answers. This often depends if what they get is for homework/ graded or not. If its not for homework they brush it off and don't work at it. If it is for homework or going to be collected they sneak some answers from friends. The teacher counters their move by not telling them if it's for homework or not this works sometimes but only for he first class, by the third period the kids figured out from friends what will be collected or not.

In the high school students have learned that if you ask enough times the teacher will show them a video. Videos are well integrated into my CT's lesson plans, and for good reason. What I have noticed is that every time the video ends youtube will show 5 or more new options of videos to watch. So if you watch a video on centipedes a suggested video may be centipede fights spider. The second that screen pops up they all beg to see it because hey, it beats class.
The game of school is much much bigger then what meets the eye when observing a class once a week. I know how these rascals work because I used to be the game of school's MVP. Students may have older siblings older friends that may still have old tests, I would combat this by obviously changing my questions, but we know some teachers don't. One time I had my mom "help me" with a Spanish paper I had to write for class, the teacher told me I was close to failing and I needed to do well. I still did not care it was just middle school Spanish. My mom wrote it embarrassingly enough, and the teacher read it and noticed some words we never learned (in Portuguese). What I hated that was a good idea was to ask me how I found those words I said the book she caught me. A lot of my homework was done 25 seconds before class as I sprinted through it looking at some one else's paper. The teachers who didn't start right away and didn't have something to work on right away I was able to pull this off on, with no idea what I was writing I would get full credit and it in the end hurt me.

To be honest, I was one of the worst students people came across until later in High school I know how it works. I have a very advantage from all the expediences of my schooling and playing the game so frequently. I can even visualize new tricks they might have using facebook and trading homework answers. I think what it will take from me is to just step back think about what I am doing each day take notes on what went wrong. I will really read students work, this way if I see homework copied words for word I will have a spying eye on those students next time to see who the culprit may be. Students (at least some) would rather end up doing their work then have the their teacher catch them using their mom to do work. I am excited to make the game of school a little harder for students and make their learning a little better.